CU Buffs' QB Shane Dillon transferring to play basketball

Redshirt freshman was star of 2012 recruiting class

University of Colorado quarterback Shane Dillon, seen here at spring practice in April, announced today he is leaving CU to play basketball elsewhere.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Attrition continues to be a major problem for the Colorado football program and a key ingredient to the struggles of the program.

It struck again Tuesday with the departure of once-coveted quarterback Shane Dillon, who has decided to give up football to pursue a college basketball scholarship.

Dillon called basketball his first love in a press release issued by the school. He is 6-foot-5 and averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds as a senior in high school and has spent a year dealing with a bad throwing shoulder, but he said that injury didn't impact his choice.

"I always kind of felt my decision that I had to play football was forced upon me a little bit," Dillon said in the press release. "People told me I had to make a decision by the end of my junior year between football and basketball because quarterbacks all seemed to commit pretty early. Basketball has always been my passion, and even though I really enjoyed my year here, I felt the time is now for me to make the change."

Who could have seen that coming two years ago when former CU coach Jon Embree landed a commitment from Dillon, who was then an Elite 11 quarterback with numerous scholarship offers?

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Fans have been frustrated the past two seasons to see so many true freshman playing for the Buffs. CU led the nation in games started by freshman last year with 57 and 38 of those came on defense, which was also tops in the nation. A key reason CU needed so many freshman playing was nine members of the 2008 recruiting class, players who could have been seniors last fall, never made it to their senior seasons in Boulder.

Unlike college basketball, it's very difficult to win college football games with a lot of freshmen on the field because they simply don't have the strength and experience to matchup with third, fourth and fifth-year players they have to block and tackle.

Attrition isn't a problem unique to Colorado. Every program in every college sport in the nation deals with it to some extent, but it has become a major issue in Boulder because the number of players leaving the program before completing their eligibility has been so high in recent years.

Three coaching changes in the past seven years has only added to the problem in Boulder.

In 2009, CU signed 20 recruits to national letters of intent in the fourth year of former coach Dan Hawkins' time in Boulder. Only six of those players remain on the roster for their senior season this fall. One member of the class used all four years of eligibility without redshirting and finished his career last season and another member of the class opted to forgo his senior season and was drafted into the NFL.

Still, a dozen members of the class either transferred, medically retired or never made it to CU because of academic reasons.

In 2010, CU signed 24 players and only 12 of them remain in the program with fall camp starting in three weeks. Already eight members of the 23-man 2011 recruiting class have gone elsewhere.

That's 30 of 67 recruits who signed with the program over three years who failed to make much of an impact for the Buffs. And it's still possible that more members of those classes could wash out before completing their eligibility.

First-year coach Mike MacIntyre is never going to retain every player he signs to a national letter of intent. There are too many other opportunities available to players who might be facing two or three years of waiting before they get to play. It's also unrealistic to think that every player will succeed academically, avoid off-the-field trouble and injuries to make it through a four or five year career.

But improving the attrition rate is going to be an integral part of MacIntyre's efforts to turn around the CU program.

"We hate to see Shane go, he's truly a phenomenal young man, but we understand what he wants to pursue," MacIntyre said in the CU release. "I felt like he definitely had a future in football, but as Shane and I discussed, it was going to take hard work to succeed in football, and it's also the same for basketball. Instead of throwing passes for three hours in practice, he'll be shooting baskets.

"But you just can't change your passion, and his is basketball. It was a tough decision for him but one that he reached after working through it the entire year. We wish him the very best and we know that he will be successful in whatever he attempts in the future."